The Contradiction of Name Dropping

Yes this is about Kendrick’s Verse but more so about how people responded to it. Some dumbasses thought it was a diss and loved that shit. Other people knew the purpose of when Kendrick dropped the names and weren’t really impressed. I think those will understand what i’m about to say.

How is it that you take an artist like Kendrick Lamar and praise him for saying names but when another rapper says a certain artist name, it’s a “bitch cry for attention”. Some people do it better than Kendrick did! In the way Kendrick approached it, it would be equivalent to when you tell yo homeboy you gone kill him on the basketball court.

The rappers i’m talking about are the equivalent to you telling someone “nigga you fucking suck at basketball” and you assume that the person you said suck would make more of a competition than your homeboy who’s gonna just do his best. However there are a mountain of other rappers that hip-hop fans consider “whining” or “crying for attention” when they mention an artist names. I’m honestly confused.

Take a guy like Hopsin, he has mentioned names a long time ago. I’M NOT COMPARING THE TWO AS ARTIST, JUST ON THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE BOTH DROP NAMES IN THEIR CAREER WITH CONTRADICTORY RESPONSES. People called acted like he was crying so people would pay attention to him. But as soon as Kendrick Lamar says “I’m tryna murder you niggas/make sure yo fans dont hear a noun or verb from you niggas” It’s all of a sudden alright to take hip-hop back to being a competition.

For me, the difference is that people like Hopsin mention other rappers so much that it becomes a gimmick. Kendrick used one verse to point out the importance of competition and at one point rattled off a list of high-profile rappers (most of which he had worked with) to prove his point

Responses to name dropping usually depend on your rep. For Kendrick, he built his career off of this “Good Kid” image and was very respectful of almost all parts of rap (If you watch his interviews). So when he dropped that verse, people were like “DAAAAAMNN”. Also, Hopsin gets that bad response because he is corny as fuck and tries to be edgy by dissing random rappers like Soulja Boy. It’s one thing to be name dropping in the underground, when you’re practically a nobody. But it takes some balls to do it in the mainstream like Kendrick. He took a HUGE risk with those lines and potentially could have hurt relationships with the people he named which would cause him to collaborate with them less, and in turn make less money. I doubt I made sense, but FUCK IT

The Game’s actually toned down on the name-dropping over the years. I mean yeah he still does it A LOT but not as much as he used to. Although I haven’t heard Jesus Piece yet so I dunno how true that statement actually is, lol

the same way that lebron could say hes the greatest player in the game right now and noone would really have grounds to disagree, from an era perspective today, hes probs at the forefront right now, hence he can say shit like this

Imagine hip-hop as a ladder where people climb as high as they can while they occasionally shit down on the dudes beneath them. The rule is, you can only shit down. Kendrick is more or less above everybody on that ladder, and can shit on almost errbody (the GOATS don’t really care about shitting anymore, they have families and stuff).

Hopsin on the other hand, is breaking the rules. He is shitting in his hand and throwing it up at people who have climbed much higher. The rules aren’t written, tho, and there are no judges, only fans who get really heated when people throw shit like Hopsin sometimes does.

Kendrick isn’t saying “you fucking suck at basketball”, he is saying, “I’m gonna try to climb way ahead of all of you, and eat tons of taco bell and beans, keep up with me if you don’t want my feces in your face”

Hopsin’s namedropping and Kendrick’s namedropping is incomparable. Relevancy aside, one is a diss while the other is just a friendly compliment. If Kendrick wanted to show he had balls and take a risk, he would namedrop the rappers he is not friends with or don’t know personally.

As much as I hate to agree with Sandy Cheex, relevance does matter.Lyrically,Hopsin’s name-drop was superior he was actually imaginative in dissing the guys he named.
Saying he would break Drake’s spine as a reference to Degrassi and referencing one of Lupe’s songs.
K.Dot named a few people and the mainstream audience has their panties in a bunch, it’s simply because.Kendrick operates in a vacuum that is mainstream music where the standards are considerably lower in terms of lyricism if , Kendrick was underground nobody would think what he said about Drake,Cole and company was that good of a line.

In the same way if Lil Wayne was underground and making songs with Chino XL,Apathy,Celph Titled,Diabolic and others ,nobody would think he’s amongst the greats in metaphors and word-play.

@Igot2Hanz He took no risk, nobody would be that sensitive to stop making records with Kendrick Lamar. It would be smarter actually to do more records with him in terms of making money.

@skeetx3 I understand your reference in terms of success, yes, when Hopsin did drop those names people were alot bigger than him. However, i don’t believe when you diss someone its a battle between statistics (money, sales, or popularity) unless you set those ground rules that the basis for the diss is “I’m richer than you” but when you diss rap skills I believe its an even spectrum that can go either way depending on who has better skills.

Also I don’t believe that that analogy makes sense because Kendrick didn’t shit on anyone. He acknowledge them as people he wants to climb passed on the ladder. Therefore in a way, he’s throwing his shit up and all the dick riders, and people that thought it was a diss, are the birds that ate that shit up before it could touch anyone he mentioned….because NOBODY that he mentioned has responded.

I think it would be better if we just stop using Hopsin to compare to Kendrick. I forgot RG hates Hopsin. I’m getting the impression that yall are being biased in the comparison.

All I’m asking is why is it that Kendrick made name dropping an exceptional thing in hip-hop now. That fact that he’s just mainstream is bull-shit to me. And then saying its not a cry for attention is also bull shit.

Kendrick knew the reaction to this shit. He knew mutha fuckas would be all in his shit. It’s actually really smart. So how is he not asking for attention? Just cause he’s famous doesn’t mean you should just give him a pass.

I didn’t say kendrick shat on anybody. He warned them he would shit on them if they didn’t keep up with him, that’s the whole point.

And I didn’t mean for you to interpret my shit-ladder as a metaphor for commercial success. Nas is way above Drake on this ladder. It’s a metaphor for respect in the hip-hop community, which is based on a ton of factors. Kendrick is above more or less everybody he namedropped (cept the goats blabla) in terms of props.

And to me he did in no way acknowledge the ones he namedropped as higher up on this ridicolous ladder either. He simply made it clear that he is constantly striving to be in a position where he can shit on them, acknowledning nothing but the competition.